Irina Spirlea (born March 26, 1974 in Bucharest) is a former tennis player from Romania, who turned professional in 1990. She won four singles and six doubles titles during her career. The righthander reached her highest individual ranking on the WTA Tour on October 13, 1997, when she became the number 7 of the world. She retired in 2000. While hardly recognized for a notable tennis career, she achieved short-lived fame in the tennis world after her 1997 encounter with Venus Williams in the US Open semifinals. The match came down to a third-set tiebreaker, in which she and Williams bumped into each other near the net post while changing ends. Spirlea went on to lose the match 7-6(5) 4-6 7-6(7). Williams' father blamed Spirlea's racism as the cause of the collision. Spirlea cited Williams' arrogance.